Banks extend helping hand

Page Tools

Some of Australia's major banks have extended a helping hand to
those communities ravaged by the South Australian bushfires,
offering financial assistance to affected customers.

Westpac, ANZ Bank and the Commonwealth Bank made the offers of
help on Wednesday in the wake of the devastating Eyre Peninsula
bushfire, which has killed nine people and injured more than
100.

Westpac announced a special disaster relief program designed to
assist customers seriously affected by the blaze.

The bank said it would offer affected home loan customers
deferred repayments for up to three months or a reduced interest
rate for 12 months, while those with personal loans could apply to
refinance their loan at a discounted fixed interest rate.

Credit card customers affected by the blaze could defer their
next credit card payment and request an emergency credit limit
increase, and affected businesses with existing loans could request
loan restructuring without incurring the usual bank establishment
fees.

"We understand how situations like this can affect our
customers' financial circumstances and at this time they do not
need the additional burden of worries over financial commitments,"
Westpac's South Australia regional executive Peter Wandmaker
said.

Meanwhile, ANZ Bank said it would provide immediate cash
assistance for mortgage customers whose primary residence had been
affected by the bushfire.

The assistance would involve a $10,000 cash grant where
customers' homes had been totally destroyed, while those whose
homes had been partially destroyed through structural damage to
their home or amenities would receive a $5000 grant, ANZ said.

The bank said it would also provide a $10,000 cash grant to
customers whose stock and machinery had been totally destroyed,
along with $5000 to those whose farms had been partially
destroyed.

"The measures are a tangible way we can directly assist those
people in the community," ANZ group managing director personal,
Brian Hartzer, said.

And the Commonwealth Bank said it had activated its special
emergency assistance package to help customers affected by the
blaze.

Key features of the package included prioritising claims to
CommInsure for customers seeking help through their home and
contents insurance, as well as loan restructuring for business
customers with existing loans, without incurring the usual bank
establishment fees.

The bank has also offered to provide additional loans or changes
to repayment arrangements for its home loan customers who may
experience difficulties because of the fires.

"The Commonwealth Bank is concerned at the impact of the fires
in South Australia - especially in the Eyre Peninsula - on
families, farmers and business people," the bank's executive
general manager of retail banking services, David Marshall,
said.